If you’ve been visiting Nature Network for a while, to write a blog, leave a comment, or simply to read, you will have noticed some rather obvious changes recently. Last week, our blogs moved to a new blogging platform: Movable Type 4. MT4 is a powerful platform with dozens of new features for bloggers, and commenters, to try out. We have compiled this guide to highlight some of these new features. The post is mostly aimed at current Nature Network bloggers, but some of the sections (such as embedding content) may also be of interest to commenters.

Content Creation Features

BlockQuotes: Allows you to indent whole paragraphs of text, for example to quote. Type bq. in front of the text you want to indent, or press the Block Quote button, between the envelope and the bullet points, after highlighting the text you wish to indent.

Insert Picture: Click on image icon at the top of the Create Post screen (second from right). Select desired file or upload a new picture

Insert YouTube Video: Go to YouTube. Find the video you want to embed. On the left hand side is a link entitled “Embed”. Simply paste that link into your post. YouTube lets you select a width for the video by clicking the ‘customize’ button. Select 480 × 385. Other services, such as Vimeo, can be used in the same way.

Note, we’ve even given it a red border to match the masthead.

Embed a map: Go to Google Maps. Get the map you want on screen. Go to top right hand corner and click Link. Copy Embed link into blog post. Again, you can customise the size by following the link beneath the embed code. Suggested width = 500.

View The Scientific Tourist in London in a larger map

Example from The Scientific Tourist in London.

Embed directions to a place: Go to https://bit.ly/cx1PrU. Change the size, destination etc. Click Get The Code. Paste that code into blog post. Note: this embedding process will work for all sorts of content which is designed to be embedded in other webpages.

Attach a file: (e.g. a Word document) to your post for others to download: Click on the image icon at the top of the Create Post screen (second from right). Select desired file. A link will be produced in the post text. The default link uses the file’s name as its text: to change the text, go into Textile 2 MarkUp Style and change the text in the block of code provided.

Publish Features

Scheduling: To author a post and schedule it to be automatically published at a specified time in the future, go into Create Entry as normal. Create your post, and select “Scheduled” from the dropdown Publish menu on the right hand side. Then save as normal. Your post will be published at your chosen time.

QuickPost boomarklet – for quickly posting from other sites: At the bottom of your Create Post interface (just below Save/Preview) is a bookmarklet for quickly creating posts. Drag the bookmarklet to your toolbar. Then, whenever you are on another site you want to blog about, click the bookmarklet and a the Create Post box will pop up in a new window, pre-populated with the title and a URL to the page.

Mark-up Styles

One obvious difference for people creating blog posts is the input format. MT4 allows you to create your post in several ways:

None. This format allows you to compose your post in pure HTML; the system will not modify your text in any way when your entry is published.

Convert Line Breaks. This format will automatically enclose your paragraphs in p tags, and converts line breaks to br tags.

Markdown. Markdown is a popular method for writing HTML in a simple text-based syntax. Markdown is authored by John Gruber, learn more about Markdown at his site.

Markdown with Smarty Pants. Markdown with Smarty Pants combines the Markdown syntax (see above) with the Smarty Pants filter that translates plain ASCII punctuation characters into “smart” typographic punctuation HTML entities. Smarty Pants is authored by John Gruber, learn more about Smarty Pants at his site.

Rich Text. Also known as WYSIWYG (“What you see is what you get”), this is the default formatting option for new blogs. The rich text editor lets you see how your text will be formatted as you write it, similar to how a desktop word processor (like Microsoft Word) behaves. Always preview your post rather than relying on the RichText looking right. Some things do not appear in the Editor which do show when Preview is pressed (e.g. embedded code for driving directions).

Textile 2. Textile 2 is another popular method for writing HTML in a simple text-based syntax, and will be familiar to long-time users of Nature Network. Textile 2 is authored by Dean Allen, learn more about Textile 2 at his site.

When switching between Mark-up Styles, be sure to save your raw text and check it when you change. Everything should be copied over fine when switching, but some content may look odd until you press Preview.

Commenting

• You can now link to specific comments by clicking on the time stamp and copying the URL.
• You can now embed video, maps and other multimedia by copying the code into the comment field (see above).
• Images can be embedded in the comments by adding exclamation marks around the image’s URL. Standard HTML can also be used to achieve this.

MT4 also supports a range of plugins – small pieces of software that can be ‘bolted on’ to increase functionality. We will be adding new plugins in the near future, but please suggest any that you find particularly appealing.

Do share any other tricks and tips you’ve discovered in the comments below.